Hindrance
by SociallyDriven
Summary: She was quite contented in just admiring him from afar but then he had to ruin it all by telling her he fancies her. Everything within the parameter of logic and reasoning went down the drain that fateful day. HGDM
1. Chapter 1

**Hindrance**

_By: SociallyDriven_

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**Part 1 of 3**

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"You have a crush on whom??" A bushy-haired girl exclaimed at her companion, stopping midway through making a full step.

"Oh you heard me. Now shush!" The other girl whispered rather loudly, grabbing her best friend's arm, her thick ginger hair cascading down her shoulders.

"But Gin, that git? He's a total jerk!"

"I know, okay. It's just that … oh I don't know! Maybe my heart just decided to fancy him out on a whim!"

The two girls were already climbing the stairs towards the seventh floor where their cozy common room is located. After the exhausting ascent, the redhead took a sharp turn as her best friend was dragged along, still looking baffled at the shocking secret Ginny Weasley had just told her. Hermione Granger has heard so many shocking things about every possible subject (seeing as this is a ginormous institution) but never in her life had she been so … well, for the lack of a better word: shocked.

She heard Ginny uttering the password to the Fat Lady (_"Jammy"_) and when they entered the common room seeing nobody in sight, her best friend sighed in relief. "No one's around. I guess the password has given us some of its luck."

The two of them sat themselves down at the two most comfortable chairs in the room, positioned strategically in front of the common room fire.

"So," the redhead started, looking at Hermione. "what do you think? Am I going crazy?"

The girl took a moment to answer. "Well, I know people tend to get a little barmy when they're in their early love stages but in your case Gin, I'd say it's pretty weird." The receiver of the answer grimaced. "You see it's just that … I mean _him_? I thought you hated him!"

"I still do! But now the hate is slowly getting mingled with chaste affections." Ginny smiled at this, carrying a slightly dazed-off look. She was so dazed off that she didn't see her best friend rolling her eyes. "Anyway, now I officially declare him as my number one love!" Ginny squealed as Hermione looked on with an incredulous look.

"You have to validate that he's your crush?"

"Of course. I'm a girl and I keep changing my mind on matters such as crushes. It's like everyday I have a new boy to fancy." She said all of this in a matter-of-fact voice.

There was a slight pause. Hermione, not understanding what the girl sitting in front of her had just said, furrowed her eyebrows and questioned, "So?"

"So, that means that I really don't take my crushes seriously. But I have a gut feeling that he's gonna be a keeper." The redhead nodded fervently at her best friend.

The bushy haired girl looked at her keenly. "Riiiiight."

"I'm serious! I mean to be honest, I've never had such a long crush on anybody before."

"Except for Harry." Hermione added.

"Except for Harry." Ginny confirmed.

"And for how long have you fancied him?"

"Oh I don't know. A little over a month now I guess."

"And you tell me this little secret of yours just now?" Hermione exclaimed, slightly offended.

"I wasn't sure of what I really felt for him –"

"Riiight."

"Hey! And knowing that I fancy a guy like him, well, that isn't really an acceptable thing to tell to the public now, is it?"

"Exactly." Hermione replied, tersely nodding. "For a moment there I thought your brain wasn't already functioning." That remark earned her a pillow on the face. "Ouch! No potential flying objects are involved in this conversation."

"There soon will be if you won't stop your quips." Ginny folded her arms to her chest, daring Hermione with a stare. Hermione, giving up, slouched her shoulders and leaned back into the soft armchair.

"Fine. I'll stop with the sarcastic remarks."

"Good. I'm quite done telling you all of this anyways. I've got to go and finish my essay in Charms. Ugh." Ginny stood up and smoothed her robes.

"Hey Gin." Hermione stood up too, wanting to ask another question that has been nagging her ever since the thought of her best friend having a huge crush on a guy like him sunk in and registered on her brain.

"Yeah 'Mione?" Ginny replied, looking at Hermione expectedly.

She asked so bluntly: "What do you like about him?"

"Well," the redhead started, quite startled at her best friend's question, "I guess it's just the way he acts. I just seem to notice him more these days whenever I go to the library to talk to you."

Hermione kept silent, looking at the fireplace as if in a trance. It seemed Ginny was in a trance too, trying to remember every detail of her crush.

"If he's not sitting down and scribbling away, he'd be leaning in a bookshelf reading a book. In those times, he doesn't look so evil. No, not at all. He just looks so …"

"Solemn." Hermione replied, still gazing at the crackling embers.

Ginny smiled at the word. "Yes. Solemn."

"Hmmm."

For a moment they stood there in silence, lost in their own thoughts. Ginny was the first to collect her senses.

"Well if that's all you're gonna ask, I'm going upstairs now." She said slowly, still having a lagging feeling.

"Okay." Hermione said. She gave her best friend a smile. "I'm glad you told me."

There was a light pause and then,

"Oh 'Mione!" She rushed towards her and hugged her tightly. "I'm so happy too that I told you." After a few seconds of Hermione gasping for breath, Ginny let go of her. "Oh you don't know how agonizing it is to keep such a thing as big as this to myself. It feels so good to let it out!"

"Glad to be of help." Hermione replied. She was still taking in deep breaths.

"Okay then, I'm going now. See you tomorrow at breakfast okay?"

"Sure." Hermione sat back down, shifting the armchair a bit closer to the fireplace. And when she was nearly out of sight, Ginny turned around and said, "Hey 'Mione!"

Hermione turned her head towards the staircases. "What is it?"

There was a slight pause before her cheerful voice was heard. "Thank you." Puzzlingly for an outsider, Hermione frowned at this, knowing her best friend couldn't see her.

"Anytime Gin." She replied, successfully cloaking her voice with fake happiness. After that, she heard her best friend's footsteps making their way to the sixth year dormitories.

Hermione looked at the window, watching the sun making its glorious descent. Their were hues of red and orange mingled with a touch of blue and a pint of purple splashed smoothly along the vast canvas of the skies.

What had just happened, what her best friend has just told her … it just made her world a little more complicated.

It's not because Ginny Weasley was in love with Draco Malfoy. No, it isn't that.

The problem is … She's in love with him too.

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"I wonder what his favorite color is."

"Probably green and silver. You know, Slytherin." _But I know it's black. He told me that before._

"How about his favorite food?"

"Don't know." _Anything with white chocolate in it._

"And he's always reading a book. I bet he has a huge private collection of tomes and scriptures and old books … that kind of stuff."

_Well duh, he does._

"What do you think is his favorite book to read?"

_Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy_. "How should I know? Want me to go over to him and ask? He _is_ just a few meters away from us, you know."

"Stop it!"

"I'll stop when you'll stop."

"Fine. I'm stopping now."

"Thank Merlin." Hermione said, still trying to concentrate on reading the chapter on the 1805 goblin rebellion. They were currently in the library, sitting at a table near a mosaic-glassed window. She had about ten minutes of cherished silence when once again Ginny interrupted.

"So 'Mione …"

"Hmmm?" came a reply from the redhead's best friend, still concentrated on the material she was reading.

"Go to Hogsmead with me next week."

"What for?"

"Gonna buy myself some perfume. You know, the one Padma's been talking about."

"Oh yeah. The spiked one."

"It is not spiked!"

"Yes, it is. It has a small concentration of pheromone potion in it." Hermione replied smartly. "So basically the perfume is spiked so that its wearer can appear more attractive to the opposite gender for a limited period of time." She said all of this while still looking down at the practically ancient book.

"You are such a party pooper."

"Am not. Just merely stating out the truth." She closed the book and finally looked up to see Ginny's pouting face.

"Meanie."

"Hey, beats being a seducer." A shocked expression from her redheaded friend was seen as the reply. Without any reaction, Hermione gathered some of the books spilled all over the table and stood up.

Ginny leaned in on the table and hissed, "I am _not_ a seducer!"

"Sure you aren't." came the retort. "You're just planning on using a perfume spiked with love potion to attract a certain blond. Now we all know that's _completely_ different."

And with those parting words, Hermione took off into the sea of high bookshelves with the mission of returning the books into their proper places.

Or so Ginny thought.

The bushy-haired girl was walking around quite comfortably considering that she's carrying four very heavy and thick books. She knew the system like the back of her hand and didn't have a problem at all in finding the right bookcase for the book at the topmost pile.

"Here. Let me help you with that." A golden-haired boy, almost a head taller than Hermione, walked into her line of sight and just suddenly took the heavy burden from her straining arms. He was wearing a white shirt with the Slytherin crest stitched neatly onto its breast pocket. His sleeves were rolled up until the elbow.

"Thanks." She murmured. "Here, the first one goes at the top left." She was about to get the book on top of the pile when a pale hand, his hand, took it first and put it in the void exactly where she said it should be.

The boy looked at her and smirked. "Where should I put the next one?"

"Um, just below the first one." He nodded and placed the other book, slightly thicker than the others, in between the two loosely placed volumes.

"I can take care of the others. Here, give it to me." She already had a hold on the books but the boy wouldn't let go. "I said I can –"

"Granger," Hermione stopped tugging and stared into his eyes. _Grey … silver_. "let me do it."

"But –"

"We've talked about this before Granger, now let go." They looked at each other fiercely, trying to scare the other with his or her "silent-but-deadly" stare. In the end, the boy won.

Hermione sighed. "Fine." His smirk grew wider.

"Where to next?" he asked.

"The other shelf." She started walking towards another towering shelf, hearing his brisk walking behind her. She turned around a corner and stopped in front of the designated place. "Just place the books at the very right."

He followed wordlessly. Once he was book-laden no more, he turned towards her and leaned against the wall beside him.

"Hi." He started.

"Hello." There was a moment of silence between them. He was looking at her; she was looking at the floor. And then, she broke the stillness. "Ginny told me her secret yesterday."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

There was another moment of stillness as he watched her watching the floor. "Well, what is it Granger?"

She looked up, her face contorted slightly with hurt. "She says she really fancies you Draco."

He scoffed at this. "There goes another member of the fan club."

"Please don't take this too lightly." She said abruptly. "After hearing that I … I felt like such a traitor." She looked down at the floor, eyes slightly furrowed and lips pouting. "She's my best friend Draco. And here I am, pretending that I have no interest in her love life whatsoever as she goes on doting on thoughts of you." She sighed in frustration.

"Hearing her talk about you all the time, it's making me feel frustrated and guilty all at once." She looked at his face, it was impassive as always but she could see a trace of confusion in it. "I just don't know what to do now Draco. I feel like I'm betraying my best friend."

She had been holding it in ever since Ginny told her about her feelings back in the common room. But now, she couldn't hold it in any longer. She could feel the tears ready to fall.

"Granger." She heard him say, and then she felt his arms envelope her. He placed her head at the crook of his neck and just embraced her.

Hermione's eyes widened. Apparently, Draco Malfoy had never done this.

"To be honest, I really don't know what to say to you." His deep voice resounded throughout his chest and she felt every vibration of it. "Just don't cry Granger, okay? It doesn't suit you."

She smiled a bit at this. And then, she replied, her voice muffled. "I thought the great Draco Malfoy doesn't do hugs?" Draco loosened his grip on her and looked at her face, a tear making down its way across her cheek. He brushed it away.

"Now who told you that?"

"You." He smirked. She smiled. Then his smirk slowly transformed into a lopsided grin.

It was always like this every time they see a glimpse of each other during the day. During classes, in the hallways, at the Great Hall … it was quite a cute thing to witness for an outsider, if only they would notice.

"Hermione?" said a voice. They turned their heads towards the sound.

Hermione recognized it in a second. It was Ginny.

"Uh-oh. I've got to go." She said, kissing Draco on the cheek. "Bye." And before Draco could say a word, she vanished between rows of bookshelves and only the whiff of her strawberry-scented shampoo remaining.

**start of transmission**

**a/n: **And there goes the first installment of my trilogy. I hope you like it.

**HAPPY HEARTS DAY!!**

Please review. Please?

_**SociallyDriven**_

**end of transmission**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hindrance**

_By: SociallyDriven_

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**Part 2 of 3**

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It was a beautiful winter day and a certain Gryffindor was readying herself not to go enjoy herself at Hogsmead but instead to spend time at the library, scoffing as the thought of her boyfriend entered her mind for the nth time this morning.

Hermione Granger was in high spirits when she heard that a certain Draco Malfoy was staying for the winter holiday only to be disappointed to know that he'll be hanging out with Slytherins and not with her – his _girlfriend_. And now, she's walking along the deserted corridor, wearing a faint scorn on her face, hearing distant shrieks and laughter of her fellow students outside.

She opened the double doors to the library with a little push than needed and forced a smile at the librarian as she walked past. She directly went to one of the table with a window and sat. Not able to suppress it anymore, she let out a heavy sigh and rested one side of her face onto to table, groaning as her eyes met the delicate view of winter framed through the window. The sight, it presented itself with pure perfection, as if mocking Hermione of her situation.

She closed her eyes and imagined Draco at the Three Broomsticks, sipping warm, tasty butterbeer and laughing it up with all his friends. Then an image of Ginny secretly watching him from a distant table leaked into her imagination. She pouted. At least Ginny can still see him, can still hear his laugh, can still be in the same room with him. And she? Hermione Granger, girlfriend of that useless prat named Draco Malfoy, is all alone, and never has seen even a _glimpse_ of the git the whole morning.

Frustrated and abandoned, she lifted her head and started banging her forehead on the desk softly. "Stupid" (thud) "Malfoy." (thud) "Doesn't care" (thud) "about me" (thud) "at all!" (thud). Feeling a bit dazed with all the head banging, she was about to stop when another image of her best friend following her boyfriend as he walks around Hogsmead flitted through her mind. This only resulted to a faster tempo of her banging her head onto the table. Groaning yet again as she submerged herself into self-pity and jealousy over her best friend.

Hermione hated this feeling. She hated it from the very start: not being in control of her emotions over a boy. What's worse is that said boy is what society considers as an epitome of everything she is against. She loathed him with great passion and it seems that that passion turned loathe into something entirely different. Something that scared her at first but then it became something that she accepted in time.

She was quite contented in just admiring him from afar but then he had to ruin it all by telling her he fancies her. Everything within the parameter of logic and reasoning went down the drain that fateful day. Oh if she only knew it would end up like this. If she only knew that this 'thing' between them would become harder and harder to pull away from …

"Melancholic yet again, Granger?" drawled a voice. Hermione shot her head up and was met by the sight of the reason for her misery, wearing a high-end black cloak and flakes of snow gracing his blond strands. He sat down in front of her, placing a bottle containing foamy brown liquid onto the table. "Brought you a warm bottle of butterbeer." He flashed his perfect smile at her. She just continued to stare at him, eyes slightly rounded.

"What's with that expression?" Draco Malfoy tilted his head slightly, amused. "Didn't expect me to appear in front of you?" Hermione timidly shook her head from side to side as a response. "Are you telling me you're gloomy because I haven't talked to you all morning?" He asked jokingly. Hermione pouted a bit and whispered a "yes".

At hearing this, Draco sat a bit straighter, surprised at his girlfriend's answer. He looked at her sad expression and was struck at how cute she looked even when she's pouting. Unable to resist the urge, he stood up and leaned over towards Hermione, his lips making brief contact with hers. He looked into her eyes then graced her warm cheek with his icy fingers. She closed her eyes at the touch and this impelled him to kiss her again, this time a bit longer than the previous one. She sighed into the kiss, feeling happiness creeping up throughout her body once again.

"Considering you're at the top of our class, you're quite an idiot Granger. Do you know that?" he whispered to her lips. Still confounded by the kiss, all she could muster to make as a reply was another shaking of her head. He pressed his forehead onto hers then sat back onto his seat, slightly flustered.

"Look, I'm sorry I haven't been spending that much time with you. It's just that … it's really hard to sneak away when your friends tend to hang on to every word you're saying." Draco grimaced at the thought then looked back at his girlfriend. "But hey, I'm here now. So don't look so sad, okay Granger? Like I told you before, it doesn't suit you … Smile for me?" She looked at his hopeful expression. How could she say no to that face? Ever so slowly, her pout formed into a full-on smile. He smiled/smirked back.

Draco pushed the bottle towards her. "Drink it before it gets cold." Feeling slightly happier now, she took the bottle and sipped a little of its warm beverage. Hermione looked at Draco looking at her and asked, "So, how's Hogsmead?"

"Cheerful as always."

"Bet you were in agony then."

"I would've been driven out of my wits if another one of those elves offered me a candy cane."

Hermione laughed. He secretly smiled at the angelic melody.

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The sun was setting behind the snow-covered landscape, its final rays passing through the mosaic window of the Hogwarts library and resting upon two youths.

Gryffindor and Slytherin, in close proximity with each other – something people would think as scandalous and unheard of. The taller of the two, Slytherin Prince, he tangled his pale fingers among the Gryffindor's brown, curly locks and placed a chaste kiss on her lips. The young lady, she held on to his wrist, knowing that they would soon be parting ways once again.

Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy, sharing an intimate kiss – something their classmates and friends would think as impossible. She looked at his silver eyes; he looked at her brown ones. Both had something to say, yet neither spoke. Then without skipping a beat, Gryffindor started to walk away like she had done so many times before, sparing only another glance at Slytherin. Slytherin watched Gryffindor as he had watched her so many times before, willing himself not to call out her name. He stood there for exactly two minutes and he too made his way out of the library, readying himself for the world.

And so was the way these two youths part, letting the setting sun be the witness to their little world of freedom. Freedom from importance of blood and of status in life. Boy and girl were so submerged into their realm that they didn't see that there was a shadow lurking among the dusty books and creaking shelves.

As the last rays disappeared from the horizon, it seemed that the setting sun was no longer Gryffindor and Slytherin's only witness.

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**A/N: **Kinda short but substantial, neh? Please review. PLEASE. The more reviews, the more energetic I get, the sooner I would update. :) I'd really appreciate it if you'd tell me your fave part in this chapter.

P.S. I need a beta for the third chapter. Any takers?

**HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL YOUR POPS!**

SociallyDriven


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